Items of interest from today's meeting of the Council's Consents and Regulatory Committee:
Resource consents
Resource consents allow industries to operate, and enable economic activity and employment. Three hundred and eighty-two consents were issued by Taranaki Regional Council over the 2015/2016 financial year, slightly down on 400 the previous year. This was probably due to an economic downturn in the oil, gas and dairy sectors, the Consents and Regulatory Committee was told on Tuesday.
While 370 applications were processed as non-notified consents, there was significant consultation, with 324 parties including 129 iwi consulted and/or giving their written approval. There were also 12 limited-notified consents. Seven attracted 12 submissions in opposition, but all were resolved via the efficient pre-hearing process, reducing costs and improving understanding between all parties. At year’s end there were 4841 current consents, an increase of 11. The Council processed resource consents within Resource Management Act 1991 timelines 100% of the time for the 16th consecutive year.
Monitoring & enforcement
92.4% of dairy farms complied with resource consent conditions.<.2% of dairy farms, complied with their resource consent conditions over the 2015/2016 financial year, the Committee was told.
Along with those 1794 farm inspections, Council officers responded to (and publicly reported on) 585 environmental incidents within the required timeframe, instigating control and clean-up where required.
It served 152 abatement notices and 48 infringement notices, and initiated two prosecutions as a result of unauthorised incidents.
The officers inspected 233 minor industrial operations as well, with five re-inspections required to ensure that unacceptable environmental practices had been addressed. The Council also monitors more than 100 large individual consent-holders.